Tuesday May 1st, Anderton - Daresbury

Good ole Esther’s still at it with her daily differences – after yesterday’s glorious weather, it was back to grey skies, strong winds, cold and damp.

The whole journey today was fascinating. History, famous canal structures, scenery and tunnels all in abundance.

Anderton Boat Lift from the Weaver

Anderton, apart from its two busy marinas is a popular stopping place, not least because of the world famous Anderton Boat Lift. This Meccano-like amazing piece of engineering lowers or raises boats 50’ between the Trent & Mersey Canal above and the River Weaver below. After a long period closed due to corrosion caused by salt & acids from the huge chemical works on the opposite river bank, it was fully restored and reopened in 2001. Each counterbalanced tank can take two narrowboats side by side, a journey we took in 2005 when we visited the Weaver.

Beyond the entrance arm to the Lift, the canal clings to a ledge above the river and its valley. From here to beyond Saltersford Tunnel, the canal widens and narrows so much that it times it resembles Marilyn Monroe and Brigit Bardot laid on their sides and end to end. A tree lined cutting is full of Ransomes or Wild Garlic. At this time of year they are in flower and present a glorious sight. A wonderful mild aroma of garlic wafts up at you, tantalising your taste buds as you cruise past.

Entrance to Barnton Tunnel

A sharp bend under a main road brings you to the first of the day’s tunnels - Barnton. At 572 yards, it is not a long one, but it does have the odd kink or two in it to keep you on your toes. Beyond, the canal opens out into a glorious wide, sylvan glade and pool – a lovely spot to moor.

Barnton Pool

Immediately after is the second of the day’s tunnels – Saltersford. This is shorter than Barnton at 424 yards, but is beset by sinuous curves as if the builders didn’t know what a straight line was. Both tunnels (and the later Preston Brook Tunnel) are of a curious hybrid gauge, not wide enough for wide beam boats (as was the original intention), but wide enough for one and a half narrowboats!

Saltersford, as mentioned, is renowned (or notorious) for its curvy course. Until a few years ago, it was a constant cause of either merriment or incipient boat rage as boats met in the darkened depths, and one had to reverse out. Sadly (or wisely) British Waterways have now introduced a timed entry system – northbound enter for 20 minutes on the hour, and southbound, 20 minutes on the half-hour.

Fortunately we only had a wait of 5 minutes or so having timed our journey (quite fortuitously) almost to the hour mark.

Once through the tunnel, the canal sets off on attractive section through woodland with glimpses of the River Weaver running parallel on its course to Frodsham and the Mersey below us. A main road crossing heralds the approach to Bartington Wharf, now a popular base for one of the larger hireboat companies which usually has jumble of boats to be manoeuvred round. Today was no exception.

Dutton Dry Dock

The landscape opens out now and with more glorious garlicky aromas assailing my nostrils (Elaine’s lasagne in the making, not the wild garlic variety!) we were able to look down across the widening Weaver Valley to the twinned Dutton Locks. The river curves away from the canal at this point, down the locks before disappearing under Joseph Locke’s wonderful Dutton Railway Viaduct.

After a couple of sharp 90° turns, the canal runs through more woodland past a delightful dry dock with railway platform inspired valancing around its roof. This design is not surprising as it was built by the North Staffordshire Railway Co. to house tugs for Preston Brook Tunnel. The Railway Company were owners of the canal for a good few years up until 1923 and Grouping.

Dutton Stop Lock heading south

Beyond lies Dutton Stop Lock, built to safeguard the Trent & Mersey’s precious water from the dastardly Bridgewater Canal. Like the tunnel it is neither one thing or another in terms of size, more than wide enough for a narrowboat, but not wide enough for a wide beam boat.

In terms of rise/fall, it is officially 6”, but with water flowing straight through, it makes you wonder why the gates haven’t been removed altogether. When we returned from the 2005 IWA Rally at Preston Brook, British Waterways chained it open otherwise boats would have been stacked up into the tunnel waiting to get through. Why don’t they do it permanently?

Waiting at Preston Brook Tunnel

Immediately after is the opening mouth of Preston Brook Tunnel. At 1239 yards long, it is the longest by far of the three, and is again of that hybrid size. Fortunately, it is relatively straight. It has operated a timed entry system for years and we had about 20 minutes to wait. There were two boats ahead of us, and as they said it usually took them a fortnight to get from 0 – 60, they were more than happy to let us go first.

The clock slowly ticked up to the hour mark and we untied and set off into the dark of the tunnel. It has two ventilation shafts and both were dripping enough for me to get a soaking at the first and to dodge the second.

When we emerged at the far end, we were now on the Bridgewater Canal, the official junction between the two canals being some yards inside the northern portal for some reason. The Bridgewater was the first to capture the public’s imagination on the opening of the Worsley to Manchester section in 1765. Funded entirely by the Duke of Bridgewater so he could get coal from his mines at Worsley to the huge market in Manchester more cheaply, it proved an enormous success and prompted the canal mania that followed.

The line from Manchester to Runcorn (with the branch to Preston Brook) opened in 1776, and apart from two parallel flights of locks in Runcorn lowering it to the Mersey/Manchester Ship Canal, it, and the original line to Worsley and the extension to Leigh, is entirely lock free.

Preston Brook used to be a busy transhipment port with cargoes being transferred from the wide boats that plied the Bridgewater Canal to the narrowboats of the Trent & Mersey. A number of large warehouses were built to hold goods, but sadly all except one were demolished in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The sole survivor has inevitably been converted into apartments and been disfigured by an appalling pastiche of a wooden loading gantry.

Preston Brook is disfigured again both visually and orally. Man’s only answer when asked to transport goods – the motorway – makes its noisy entrance with the M56 crossing at the junction with the Runcorn Arm. The canal now veers away from the Runcorn suburbs and heads out on an embankment overlooking the site of the IWA’s National Rally in 2005. We had an exciting time here as ‘Patience’ won the Cressy Award for the best new boat adapted for liveaboard use.

Mooring near Daresbury

Soon after, we pulled into and tied up at a lovely mooring near Daresbury we have used several times before looking out over the rally site to the famous water tower at Norton. It is in fact a holding reservoir on the pipeline from Lake Vyrnwy in Wales to Liverpool.

We were not too soon in stopping as rain teemed down after lunch. Again…..